May 22, 2007

Declaration of Candidacy

Declaration of Candidacy for the

Presidency of the Republic

Citizen Mohamad Ma’amoun El Homsi

O Syrian citizens:

Justice, freedom, and equality are human values consecrated by the three monotheistic religions and positive laws. Humanity has paid a high price for achieving them and suffered death for their sake. The codes of the democratic national stage in the contemporary history of Syria have stipulated them and referred to them with respect, until the Baathist party came to power and established a presidential regime close to absolute monarchy, burying what remained of freedom for the Syrian people by proposing the absolute dictatorial slogan “Asad for Forever”. As such, the state of emergency was the duplicate alternative for the Constitution and the laws.

O Syrian citizens:

Citizens compete in every country in the world for the presidency, except in Syria. Since the arrival of the Baath party to power, the “renovation” slogan was created, at the time of self-renewal of the presidency term, thus turning Syria into an absolute, inherited, royal family state. This has led, practically and definitely, to the suspension, even in form, of what remains of the sovereignty of law, equality between citizens, and alleged equal opportunities. In all the countries of the world, citizens are entitled to elect and be elected. They are also entitled to submit applications for positions in public administration departments notably, the position of the presidency, except in this totalitarian regime, the last stronghold of Stalinism. The regime of Asad and his North Korean counterpart are the only two Republican countries in the world where authority is inherited.

O Syrian citizens, Arabs and Kurds, in all of your creeds and confessions, o grandchildren of Khaled, Al Hussein and Salaheddine, o grandchildren of the heroes of independence, freedom and democracy, o grandchildren of Youssef Al Azmat and Al Kawatli, Al Khoury and Al Azam, Al Asli and Al Baroudi, Al Jaberi and Al Kikhia, Al Atrash and Al Ali, Hananou, Al Kharrat and Al Ashmar, o children of our sacred Syrian soil, allow my heartbeats to embrace your hearts and the words of my mind to have an echo in your minds and souls.

The corrupters in my country decided to include the twenty seventh of May 2007 as a black day much darker than the darkest of days during which they tyrannized the entire Syrian people. Those corrupters decided to call it “renewal”, alleging with utmost foolishness that a parliament elected by 6% of votes is worthy of electing a legitimate president for the country, and ignoring the bold and historical decision of Syrian people to boycott said ridiculous process. They wanted Syria in all its soil and inhabitants a prison for all the Syrians. God forbids first, and the Syrian people afterwards, that their will be accomplished. The blood of our heroes runs into our veins. The ideals of freedom and honour are deep-rooted in our hearts. Faith in Almighty God, the people and freedom make miracles. Victory of the Syrian people on dictatorship will undoubtedly prevail.

O Syrian citizens: The self-renewer of his presidency term has converted, by virtue of an expertise inherited from his predecessors, the fountains of sacred freedom for life, the true edifier of civilization, into fountains for terror, murder, assassination and genocide of the innocent. He also exported his corruptions and sedition for the purpose of greed, plundering wealth, usurpating the fraudulent authority, with a dream of hegemony on the region. He exported them to neighboring countries and peoples; he did so in beloved Iraq and kindled wild confessional violence, earnestly working against a unified, democratic and safe Iraq . He exported them to Lebanon, leading to a brutal occupation and covert hegemony. He plunged said country in riots, corruption, destruction and larceny. He decided to bury the most beautiful oasis for democracy and liberalism in the region.

This self-renewer of his presidency term is the first accused in the assassination of martyr Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and the martyrs: the great intellectual Samir Kassir, brilliant journalist and MP Gebran Tueni, freedom fighter Georges Hawi, brilliant economist Fleihan, Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel, live martyr Marwan Hamade, live martyr May Chidiac, and Minister Elias El Murr.

The Syrian people impatiently awaits the establishment of an international tribunal that shall reveal the identity of the murderers and convict them for their perpetrated crimes, refute the allegation of sovereignty as an impediment for justice, reiterate the execution of the clauses of the Damascus – Beirut declaration, thus satisfying the aspiration of both peoples and contributing to regional stability and removal of the negative repercussions that befell Syria at the domestic and Arab level.

As he did in Iraq and Lebanon, he also did to the afflicted Palestinian people using different means. He exploited the justice of its cause, its pain and suffering as well as its martyrs and displaced by means of diabolic stances that incurred calamities on that people, causing death and displacement at the hand of his secret service and covert agents. His prisons are full of decent Syrians and Arabs, ignoring the reiterated calls of their family members to reveal the destiny of their lost children. He eagerly sought through delusional attitudes to hinder the passing of the positive Saudi Arab initiative approved in Beirut and Riyadh, thereby contributing to suspend the establishment of the Palestinian state and Arab consensus.

O Syrian citizens:Neither have you been in the past nor shall you become invokers and instruments for chaos and disorder, spoiling the lands of our beloved neighbors, but invokers of love, freedom, peace, development, progress and stability, and with all honesty and transparency.

O Syrian citizens:The self-renewer of his presidency term has become the head of organized crime in the worst form of state terrorism and the most fiendish of robbery and murder gangs. He buried the sprouts of freedom and democracy, buried national independence, authorized bribery, destroyed education and health, established a parasitical and fragile economy, made for corruption a state and agents, smuggled the stolen wealth of the people outside the country, and led the Syrian people to a state of poverty unprecedented in its history.

O Syrian citizens:Therefore, for all of that, in an eager and honest quest to expose and challenge the false renovation, and by virtue of our faith in Almighty God and in yourselves, we shall work together on a wise policy and administration for preserving lives and properties, consolidating national unity, establishing the sovereignty of law as well as the justice and independence of its judiciary, and rejecting injustices.

We shall together to establish a modern and civil Syrian state respectful of the international legality and its resolutions, a state establishing the best relations with the international community on the basis of the interests of nations and not individuals.. It is worth mentioning at this point that the regime omitted the Euro-Mediterranean partnership that may bring welfare to the Syrian people for the sake of narrow personal interests, a state solving its differences through diplomacy and not by establishing offices of armed militia on its territory being exploited for spreading the regime’s hegemony on the entire region, a country that provides a decent living for its people, a state turning the buildings of secret services into study halls for university students and turning prisons all over the nation into gardens where children play and the elderly take a walk. This regime has turned Syria into a great prison, arresting its national elite and convicting them with barbaric judgments through figurative trials.

O Syrian citizens:

I am a citizen like any Syrian citizen, being subject to the rightful and legitimate constitutional conditions for candidacy to the Presidency of the Republic. Moreover, thousand like me are also qualified and worthy of such post. I love and respect my family, my neighborhood, my town, and my Syrian homeland with its miscellaneous creeds and confessions. I venerate faith in God Almighty, and I have utmost respect to the freedom and democratic rights of the people as well as to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I hope that you may accept my candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic of Syria as a legitimate right and a national obligation in challenge of a corrupt, void and corrupt renovation, in support of your bold attitude to circumvent the forces of the Damascus Declaration as leverage for democratic national change